Moon Cats: Walkabout
by ShadoeFox
Summary: Suffering doubts about himself, and his self control, after his battle with the Gaki, Artemis decides to take a trip to search for himself. Luna, left behind, throws herself into working with CAPPA. This follows Moon Cats: Fearful Symetry.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon, or any OTHER Anime, manga, comic, or TV series. I'm working on the book issue, but those aren't crossing over here either.

Moon Cats: Walkabout

Minako sat, quietly watching her oldest friend and advisor. Her tears had dried, she having given up that ploy an hour ago. Now there was only depressed resignation. All in all the usually cheerful Senshi of Venus did not like that particular feeling.

So Minako being Minako, she slayed the hated depression filled silence with a comment that could only make things significantly more awkward. "So what did Luna say when you told HER you were running out on us?"

Artemis, currently in his human form winced. "Geesh Minako, ever think about developing tact?" He muttered, just softly enough that she couldn't hear him from across her bedroom.

"What did you say?"

"I said she hit me and stormed off." Artemis answered, the lie also being the truth. The black haired beauty of the feline persuasion hadn't just slapped him either. As a matter of fact she threw closed fist roundhouse that put the white haired Mau on his tail. "I told her like I'm telling you again, Minako. I'm not running out on ANYONE! The whole mess with the Gaki pushed me over the edge, and I need to get away to gather myself. I'm no good to anyone like this Minako. Not to you and especially not to Luna!"

"What about CAPPA?"

"The Captain is the one who suggested this, though I don't think he expected me to take him up on the offer. He told me he did this once, called it a walkabout. He said something about a vacation to Australia giving him the idea when he'd just made sergeant."

"So how long are you going to be gone?"

"I took two months of personal leave. Glad I'm technically a reserve officer." Artemis chuckled weakly.

"But you'll be back?"

"I promise you, and I promised her. I'll be back."

Minako stood and pulled her closest friend into a hug, strangely amused that he was taller then her. She never expected that to happen. "Okay you big lug, you better hurry back or Luna and me will kick your furry butt from here to Nerima!"

"I'm sure you will."

* * *

The next day Artemis was standing in the squad room of CAPPA headquarters. The crew had decided to throw him a going away party (Usagi had insisted it was a hurry back party) and a good time had been had by all, until an idiot drew a cursed sword from a shrine and went on a rampage. That cleared out half the squad.

"So, I guess it's time to go huh?" Artemis chuckled after the rush of activity died back down.

Captain Hibuki punched his less then human lieutenant in the shoulder lightly. "Come on Artemis, what sort of copper are you. Looking all depressed about a nice long vacation. I mean, that's to be happy about, not like your retiring or anything."

"I guess your right." Artemis smiled softly then frowned. "So, she really called in sick?"

Hibuki winced. "Yeah, sounded horrible on the phone. I didn't know cats got larengitis."

"Me and Luna ARE the only talking cats you know." Artemis replied. "How else would you have known."  
"I'll have you I know at least one other talking cat. Nice girl too. She's a waitress at that family café downtown." Hibuki chuckled. "Granted, Nuku ain't so great at prompt delivery of one's food, but she's a ray of sunshine. Just never order the fish!"

"Um… right." Artemis blinked. "Well, tell Luna I said… well, tell Luna I left." Artemis turned and walked out the door. "I'll call in from time to time, just to stay in touch."

* * *

Luna, in her small and easily concealed black cat form, watched Artemis walk out of CAPPA headquarters from her perch high on the roof. The Neko-jins long white braid flowed down and around his shoulder, making room for the backpack on his back. She sighed and ignored the tear in her eyes as he started down the road.

"Why don't you go with him? Or at least go say goodbye." The soft voice of Usagi Tsukino came from behind her, startling Luna. She turned, finding the girl in her full Senshi regalia and surprisingly well hidden for the normally ditzy blonde.

"I can't go. One of us has to stay with you." Luna said, turning away from the retreating Artemis. "As for saying goodbye… I don't think we have anything to say to eachother."

"Luna, you can't be angry at him. The Gaki kidnapping you tore him up. I've never seen him so angry. He was ready to kill anyone that got between him and you." The reincarnated princess said softly. "You know how hard that was on him, even if he's forgotten. I think we're the only two who remember what he was before Venus found him."

Luna looked up, shocked. "I didn't know any of you girls remembered."

"I remembered when I saw him leave Hibuki's office." Sailor Moon said. "I saw the rage and the dedication to a goal that filled his eyes. I've only seen expressions like that on our enemies faces."

Luna made to speak, but Usagi continued. "And at that moment I think I understood him better then I have ever understood him before. After all, I felt the same way."

Luna looked at her ward in shock, speechless. The sapphire eyes of the Princess turned to the retreating form of Artemis, who had stopped and turned to look up at them. She knew he'd notice Luna, and she knew Luna didn't know he did.

"You know Luna, you will be kinda bored without him."

"Well, I still have you girls."

"Oh no! We have plans for this summer." Usagi shook her head, though her eyes stayed locked to the man in the streets. "You aren't spoling all of them. I hear Hibuki offered you a more full time position again… Kinda along the lines of our white haired compatriots?"

"Well, yes, but as your advisor…"

"As my advisor, you are also to make sure we have proper influence within the government of Japan. You'll take the job. Call it a royal command if you have to."

Luna stuttered, but finally sighed. "Hibuki bribed you, didn't he."

"Two snickers and a twix! But I think it'll be good for you." Usagi nodded, Luna never knew it wasn't at her, then hopped off the roof. "You start tomorrow."

Luna shook her head, then turned her head to look at Artemis one last time, only to catch the very tail of his braid whipping around a corner.

AN: For those who might say Usagi was out of character… think about how she acts when someone really relies on her. There, I'm done.

As for Artemis's history, well I'm writing this other story, Moon Cats: Millinium. Read it.

Lastly, this is going to be a venture into my love of Crossovers. NO other story will be a major part throughout this tale. But Artemis (And the CAPPA crew) will stumble on some other Anime/Manga/Comic/Book/Movie types over the course of the story. This is partially to loosen my mind up to get back to the big meta plot started… um… a few stories ago I think..

Oh, and lastly and I mean it this time… I'm actually getting free time again, and am even updating other things (My profile and stuff!) So look in on that stuff. You'll be happy if you read other stuff I write!

ShadoeFox.


	2. Chapter 2

Moon Cats: Walkabout

Chapter One

Luna grumbled quietly to herself. Normally she took any work handed to her and set about it without any real complaints, but today she was just edgy.

Artemis had left yesterday, and Usagi had proven adamant on her insistence on her working at CAPPA more, and had been joined in the efforts by all the other Senshi. She'd broken down, and that morning had told Captain Hibuki that she was willing to accept that promotion to "Administrative director" he'd been asking her to take forever.

Before she'd know what was happening she'd found herself in an office on the third floor of CAPPA headquarters that she hadn't even known they'd cleaned out, marveling at how the furniture and decorations were very much to her liking. She knew Usagi had to be in on it, and planned to deal with her accordingly.

She'd also found a pile of paperwork on her desk, as well as a lieutenants badge and a fruit basket from Hibuki.

"Officer Tanuki, I understand you didn't intend to annoy the Kitsune." She repeated for the third time. "However, I do think that you apologizing to the girl would work far better then us arresting her!"

"But she turned me into a raccoon!" The four foot tall, talking raccoon in a police uniform insisted, for the fourth time.

"And I don't care!" Luna stated, finally loosing her already ragged temper. "The comment 'Nice Tails' was inappropriate, and you should have known that. Frankly if it'd been directed at me, you'd have been bleeding from someplace rather important to you. Do I make myself clear?"

The raccoon gulped, realizing instinctively that angry cats could seriously ruin a raccoons day. "I… I guess you're right. I'll apologize to her right now."

"Good, she's in the waiting room. Just be glad she just wants an apology, as opposed to filing a complaint against you. Now get out."

She watched him scurry away, and then slumped down into her padded seat. The captain slipped in a moment later, and considered her carefully. "Okay, I admit it, letting you deal with the bulk of the junior officers disciplinary stuff was dirty pool for your first day. I just figured it'd let you get your anger out on people who deserve it."

"I have a gun, my reflexes are faster then yours. I will shoot you." Luna muttered, glaring at her alleged boss. He just grinned.

"Now you sound like a cop! So how's it going, really?"

"Honestly, not that badly." Luna grudgingly admitted. "It actually reminds me of my old job."

"How does this place relate to a palace, exactly?"

"Whiny people who think shiny things on their clothing mean they are important."

"Ah." Hibuki chuckled. "So, you want to come with me and do some real law man… excuse me, law person… stuff for a change?"

Luna lifted an eyebrow, then stood and pulled a long coat on over her pants suit, a affectation she refused to admit she adopted from Artemis. "Sure, but what are you talking about. I'm not really qualified for the hard investigative stuff the rest of you do."

"Oh, it's nothing like that though I suspect you're underestimating yourself." Hibuki reassured her. "This one's a bit of a he said, she said sort of thing. I'm thinking it's going to require a bit of diplomacy, and you're the master at that."

"Mistress, actually." Luna smiled, and followed the human out of her office. "SO what exactly is the matter?"

"Oh, just something about a practical joke involving some cursed water or something like that."

"Right… practical joke."

AAA

The ride to the Nerima Ward was quiet enough, Hibuki leaving his police radio tuned only to the CAPPA frequency for a change. The unit was not the most overloaded in the city, luckily for it's small staff, but when it got busy, things tended to be ugly. Less then two weeks ago they'd engaged a troop of mecha designed to destroy the city with nothing but some hand weapons and their wits, and CAPPA managed to come out on top, with minimal casualties. Things like that bought them their more relaxed daily workload.

Strangely the officers and detectives working CAPPA had noticed that they saw the unusual more frequently then even the most endangered of Juban residents. They worked with Sailor Senshi and Moon Cats (That secret having been outed to most at the same time as a mecha attack), had a small golem who delivered peoples mail on specially made cat walks, and had regular seafood delivery from a Kappa who lived in the park near the HQ. This all was now normal to them.

Even Officer Tanuki, who with his name was kind of asking to get transformed in to a raccoon, wasn't all that odd for the squad any more. Last week Luna had listened to one of the officers complain about a "domestic" call involving two werewolves like it was normal!

"So, what's it this time. Water make them young, make them old, make them irressitable to the opposite sex."

"Made them a swan, actually." Hibuki replied. "The Nerima coppers have been trying to get us to come out and check into some shape shifting curses in the area, but frankly we didn't think it was important. The problem is that, apparently, a non-combatant got involved with the local martial arts lunatics and the ensuing ruckus involved the police actually getting called for more then cleanup for a change. Do you know anything about Jusenkyo, by the way?"

Luna had been taking a sip from a cup of tea at that moment, and expelled it in the least elegant way available, by spraying Hibuki's windshield. "WHAT! Where?"

"Jusenkyo. It's supposedly somewhere in China."

"Oh, I see." Luna laughed. "You're messing with the new girl, right?"

"Um… what are you talking about?"

"Oh come on, Hibuki, that's straight out of a Manga."

The captain blinked, surprised. "You read Manga?"

"Usagi does." Luna answered, by way of explination.

"Oh… well… Unless the Nerima guys are pulling my leg, then it's not a joke as far as I know."

"Right, next your going to tell me we're going to the Tendo Dojo." Luna laughed.

"Um… no." Hibuki pointed out the windshield, at the sign on the building's wall next to them. "We're already there."

Luna spit out her tea again.

AN: Okay, I'm going with Ranma ½ first off, cause I know it the best. However, I'm curious what people would like to see as crossovers. I'm not shy, and if I know the setting I'll do anything. It doesn't have to be anime in fact, but I won't promise to do everything requested. Someone's already asked me to do Lupin the third, and honestly I'm just not that interested in that series, so I won't be doing that (Sorry Lupin fans).

Artemis will be returning, and the chapters will generally be longer… but I wanted to get this rolling again, so folks didn't think I'd forgotten.


	3. Chapter 3

remialcsiD: See, I'm obviously not skilled enough a writer to own the universe I'm writing in

remialcsiD: See, I'm obviously not skilled enough a writer to own the universe I'm writing in. Just look at the first word in this whole chapter! Backwards!

To further disclaim, I'm stealing some of the idea's here from another series of fanfictions, Uncles, though not the whole concept.

Oh, and I even corrected the place where instead of a NAME I had a NOTE to look up a name. Geesh I need a beta reader!

Moon Cats: Walkabout

Captain Ichiro Hibuki was amused, in spite of the tea covering his windshield, at Luna's completely flustered state. The black Mau was rarely disturbed by anything (Outside of a blond with a strange hair style, and a certain white Mau) and it was a sight to see. "Are you really telling me that there's a manga series about this place?"

"Yeah! From some small publisher… Ice Maiden or something like that."

"Weird. Maybe it's a coincidence."

"Probably is. Well, let's go."

The two CAPPA officers climbed out of the Toyota sedan they were driving and strode to the gates. Hibuki chuckled, reading the sign. "Well, since we don't want to engage in "Savage combat" I think we'll just knock on the front gate." He did so, not noticing the visible twitch on Luna's cheek.

The gate was quickly answered by a uniformed officer, and they showed him their ID's. "Great." The sergeant sighed. "This is a little outside of my experience. I mean, I'm fine when dealing with some sort of obscure martial arts crap, but this magic stuff is beyond me."

Hibuki raised an eyebrow, but nodded politely. "That's why CAPPA's here sergeant. So, where's the victim?"

"Her, her family, and as far as I can tell the perpetrator is in the house waiting. Just go around back, the dining room door is open."

"Thank you." Luna said absently, walking around with a definite feeling of familiarity that just couldn't really be happening. 'It's a coincidence. It has to be.' She thought to her self.

The cry of "Ranma no Baka!" and the impact of what appeared to be a pigtailed comet against her as she came around the corner convinced her, on her way to unconsciousness, that it was no dream.

* * *

Artemis sighed as he walked off the train and back into the sunlight. The campus of Tokyo university was an easy, short walk from the station and he quickly considered the information map set up at the main entrance. Finding the building he wanted he strode confidently along the neatly kept sidewalks towards his destination.

He approached the reception desk in the lab building, and nodded to the pleasant looking co-ed behind the beat up desk. "Excuse me, could you direct me to Doctor Noriyasu Seta's lab please?"

"Oh, sure. He's on the third floor, in the back, furthest from the elevators." The college student answered, showing him on a map of the building with a smile for the cute bishonen man. Artemis just nodded and thanked her before turning to the elevators.

He soon reached the floor, then the door to the lab, slipping his pack off of his back as he reached it. He paused, then nodded and knocked on the door.

The moon cat blinked in a bit of surprise when a blond girl answered the door yelling "If you forgot my fruit salad I'll jeet kon doo your butt Keitaro!" While waving what he firmly believed was an Egyptian burial mask over her head like a bludgeon. She blinked up at him, apparently as confused by him as he was by her. "You aren't the idiot." She stated, matter of factly.

"Um, not the one I think your looking for at least." Artemis replied. "Should you be waving that around like that. They're kind of rare last I checked."

"Eh, there's lots of old junk like this around here." She replied, tossing the mask across the room, into a shelf of several other, most likely priceless, artifacts. Artemis looked on in horror as she turned and walked back into the room.

"Sarah, I remembered your fruit salad, but they were out of bananas. Seems Su got there before me." A male voice shook him out of his fugue, and the moon cat turned to find a man carrying WAY to many boxed lunches stumbling towards him. "Would you mind giving me a hand?"

Artemis deftly plucked the top three off the pile in the other mans arms. "Thanks Sarah… oh, sorry, you aren't Sarah." The young man, most likely a senior or graduate student Artemis thought, smiled in a friendly sort of way. "Are you here to see Seta?"

"Yeah. I'm Artemis Yui, and I think he was expecting me?"

"Oh, yeah, he told me you would probably be stopping by. He had to run out for a bit, but should be back in an hour or so. If you want you can have lunch with us, we've got plenty of food."

"Thanks…" Artemis watched him enter the room, and receive a blow he was sure should have been lethal from a Mayan war club. The fact that the boy just stumbled a bit left him even more confused then he was before.

"Why didn't you beat Su. I was going to bribe her with those bananas!"

* * *

The darkness slowly began to fade to a dull gray, as pain returned to Luna's universe. Groaning the black haired Neko-Jin opened her eyes and blinked up at an unfamiliar ceiling. She blinked again, trying to get the unwarranted Evangelion quote out of her head, since she really didn't like how that series had ended.

"Oh, you're awake." A soft voiced woman said, drawing Luna's eyes from the ceiling to her friendly, smiling face. "I'm sorry about Akane knocking Ranma into you. She's a really sweet girl, but she just sometimes has psychotic breaks."

The fact that the young woman said that with a smile on her face and sincerity in her voice, scared the moon cat more then a little.

She shook her head, trying to shake the cobwebs out of her thought processes, and realized that she could hear Hibuki ranting in the background. "Could you help me up miss? I think I better get down there before the captain shoots someone."

"Of course, but only if your sure you are okay to get up."

Luna nodded, and groaned only a little as she was helped to her feet. Then she followed the brown haired girl out of the room and down a flight of stairs.

"What do you MEAN this happens to you all the time! Kid, she hit you with a twenty pound sledge hammer!" The commander of CAPPA division yelled at the pigtailed boy who seemed to be not at all put out by getting slammed into his partner. He was apologetic about her getting hurt, at least, but the man wasn't satisfied.

"Ichiro, I'm fine. You can calm down." Luna said, placing her hand on the angry mans shoulder.

He looked at her, then sighed. "Fine, then the girl doesn't get arrested." Then he turned and looked at the crowd of strange people. "Now, we got some call about a magical curse and that someone managed to curse an innocent bystander. Who is the victim, and who managed to curse her?"

"Oh dear, it was poor Mouse, but it wasn't really his fault. He and Ranma were just messing around a bit in the back yard." The woman standing next to Luna said with a concerned frown. "I do hope he's not going to be in to much trouble."

"Who'd he manage to curse ma'am." Hibuki asked, again.

That's when the girl tripped over a warped floorboard that for some reason was next to where her crying father was sitting, and dropped the baggie of ice she'd been using to cool Luna's head, the half water, half ice mix exploding over her and the black haired boy in Chinese clothing he'd just been arguing with.

Before he could blink the boy was a red headed girl, and the nice girl was a rather perplexed looking swan.

* * *

AN: Okay, here we go, another chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: O Johnny Boy

Disclaimer: O Johnny Boy! I Don't, I don't own anything… Oh Johnny Boy, oh Johnnnny boy….

But I digress.

I have just recently received an e-mail asking "Did you stop writing! I hope not!" Well, the answer is I haven't stopped, but I sure as heck keep forgetting to do it anyhow. Man you guys need to hound me more!

Either way, here's another chapter of:

Moon Cats: Walkabout

Chapter Three

Artemis was saved from having to wade into the vicious melee by Dr. Sato's timely return to his office. "Sarah, stop playing with Keitaro! It's lunch time." The smiling archaeologist chuckled as the small blonde stopped savagely beating the younger man.

To the Neko-jin's further shock, the man called Keitaro stood up with no apparent injuries. The only sign of damage was, in fact, the dust of several civilizations weapons and pottery he shook out of his hair. Even more absurd, and impressively, he hadn't dropped any of the lunch bags and instead started setting them on a open table top, for all the world like he hadn't just been beaten like a rug.

The lab coat wearing professor turned to Artemis. "Now how can I help you? You don't look like one of my students."

"Uh, yeah… I'm Artemis Yui, we talked on the phone?"

"Oh, of course! You're interested in joining the Egypt expedition! It's very exciting." Dr. Sato gestured to the seat next to his as he sat down to eat.

Artemis nodded, gamely choosing to ignore the weirdness he'd walked in on. Being a transforming cat he choose to not throw stones from his greenhouse. "I know, I read the synopsis you sent me. I have a, shall we say, fascination with the concept of cat worship. Isn't most of your work oriented towards a "Turtle Civilization" though?"

"Generally that is my first love, yes. However, a small private collection was recently left to the university and it had some pieces that just demand follow up work! In fact we just recently translated a scroll that had been sealed in one of the collections larger jars, which was just fascinating"

"Really? What did you find?"

Sato chuckled "An interesting bit of myth, though it seemed to be written more like someone's journal. There were actually a large sheaf of scrolls, but it was Keitaro that managed the translation. Why don't you tell him what you found?"

The younger man blushed. "Well, it's really just a story."

"Stories often have more truth to them then you'd think." Artemis assured him. "Trust me, I'm a bit of an expert on that." He said with a wry grin.

Keitaro matched the grin with one of his own. "Yeah, you'd think I'd know better too. But this one's a little out there." He adjusted himself in his seat, and ignored Sarah stealing the last of his fries as he thought. "Well, the short form is, the author of the scrolls seemed to think that the cats sacred to Bast weren't normal cats."

"What were they, pure breeds?" Artemis quipped.

"No, apparently he believed they could speak." Keitaro laughed. "Funny huh."

The Cheshire cat smile no the white haired mans face was purely coincidental. "Oh., yeah. Very funny."

"That wasn't all either." Sarah chimed in. She'd be damned to admit it, but she'd enjoyed the story when Keitaro had told it to her, while translating it. "He thought they'd come from the moon too! Isn't that wei… are you okay?"

They all got up, and looked down at Artemis as he stared back up from the floor. "Um…yeah. Chair must be, um, slippery…" He stuttered. "The moon, you said?"

Aaaaaaaa

Captain Hibuki had seen many, many strange things in his life. Some mundane, but weird events; like a drunk managing to park his car on the observation deck of Tokyo tower, or more mystical events like Kappa's delivering fresh fish every Thursday to the station. He thought, absently to himself, that seeing a young man turn to a woman, and a woman turn to a large water foul wouldn't shock him.

But it did. It was probably the usually unflappable Luna gapping like a landed carp that sent him over the edge.

"What the hell is going on here!" he demanded, eyes running over all the people in the room, the local cop included.

"A Jusenkyo CURSE!" Luna yelled. Hibuki whipped his head back to her, because it didn't sound like she was answering so much as yelling in indignation.

"Um… Yeah. I thought you guys would know about those." The street cop replied, on the off hand chance it was a question. He gulped in terror when the tiny seeming black haired woman grabbed him by his uniform and pulled him to her, holding him off the ground with little to no effort.

"That… is… not… possible!" Luna declared. "That's all from a manga!"

"Oh, you read my manga did you?" On of the younger girls, the one sitting to the side as if to distance her self from the madness, chimed in. "I had no idea it was popular with the adult audience."

"WHAT!" That was the bulk of the room, including Luna, but excluding the other two, now very confused cops.

"College is expensive." The girl commented dryly. "Oh, and don't look so put out Ranma, I am putting some aside for you to go too. You'll understand if I'm not going to assume the tuition for someplace like Tokyo U though, I hope."

"Um… okay."

"Nabiki Tendo." Luna stated. "You have to be Nabiki Tendo."

"I am."

"And how much of what happens in those little comic books of yours is accurate."

"Well, I do take some dramatic license with my… financial activities of course." Nabiki assured her, smirking at the raised eyebrow the police woman responded with. "But the fights and such are more or less accurate."

"Okay, would someone tell me what's going on!" Hibuki repeated.

This time he got an answer. "Ms. Tendo here is the… we'll call it creator of a comic series. It seems she's just been retelling the lives of the people around her."

"So, wait, you KNOW these people?"

"That might be a bit extreme. I know OF them, though." Luna tapped her chin, and then turned to the large balding man at the table. "Before I continue, do you know anyone named Hino, Aino, Tsukino, Mizuno, Kino, Tenou, Kaioh, Tomoe or god forbid Meioh?"

"What the heck does that have to do with anything?" Again, Hibuki demanding. He didn't know anything, and now she was listing the family names of all nine sailor scouts! He REALLY wanted to know what was happening.

The big man, for his part, seemed to consider the question seriously. "Hmm, no… Oh, Tsukino! I met a girl, weird hairstyle, with that name. Wouldn't share her ice cream. Even offered... um… heh… Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Engaged to HER, or her DAUGHTER!"

"Daughter, ma'am!"

Luna, along with half the rest of the people in the room sighed. Granted Usagi HADN'T agreed but Luna was torn on how she felt about that. Ranma Saotome would have definitely ruined Wisemans day in the future. It was almost a shame.

"Luna!"

"Oh, Sorry captain. Just making sure no unforeseen marriage engagements had been set for our interns." She ignored his confused stare, and turned back to the swan, who was watching in a serene way. "Now, Kasumi is it?"

The swan nodded.

"Why don't we go to the bathroom, and get you changed, then we can talk, shall we?"

The swan nodded, and Luna scooped up the clothing next to her, then followed her deeper into the house.

Hibuki watched them go, shell shocked, then slapped his head in frustration. "Someone had BETTER tell me what is going on right now."

"Very well." The one Luna called Nabiki said. "And since you're a police man, I'll share it all for free."

Hibuki wasn't comforted by the looks of shock on the other peoples face.

Bbbb

"Oh, I do hope Mouse isn't in to much trouble." Kasumi Tendo confided with Luna. "I know he shouldn't have been throwing around cursed water again, but Ranma and he were just playing."

Luna had always, when reading the manga herself (an activity she would never willingly admit to Usagi), assumed Kasumi was more aware of her surroundings then she was portrayed. The intelligence in the girls eyes belied her seemingly oblivious statement making Luna think she truly believed it was play for them.

Of course, considering what those kids could do if they really wanted to let loose, she might not be completely wrong, either.

"Well, as for the water it's self, I checked while you were… um… changing… and it's actually listed as a class four magical material." Luna had found the listing in an obscure government database, but still hadn't found who'd created the same list. "That alone is punishable by a reasonably large fine or community service. As for what happened to you, that's assault but you can choose not to press charges if you really don't wish him prosecuted."

"Oh, then I'll do that. Or rather, won't do that." Kasumi smiled, and pulled a small object out of her skirt pocket. "Besides he gave me this lovely figurine as an apology!"

Luna looked at the small golden statue. Shaped like a swan in flight, it was a lovely piece, though the shape shifting cat didn't think it made up for being turned into a bird, of all things. "It's very lovely. I'll go and inform…"

Her comments were interrupted as several metal hooks ripped through the walls of the bathroom. She found herself under the taller woman, and once again knocked unconscious as the whole room was apparently pulled out of the house, and into the air.

AN: Well, you just can't hang out in Nerima without water, or kidnapping attempts. I mean, that's just completely missing out on the local color!


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I'm very creative! I admit it! I create wonderful characters and worlds, all in my mind!

Sadly, Sailor Moon, Ranma ½, and Love Hina are not any of the worlds I created. I was way to late to take that credit. Oh well… CAPPA's mine, at least!

Moon Cats: Walkabout

Chapter 4

Ichiro Hibuki was normally a reasonable man. That, and his tie to the Sailor Scouts/Soldiers, was the primary reason for his Captains shield and CAPPA command berth.

Swan shapped blimps kidnapping his partner and a civilian, however, put him into a foul mood. No pun intended.

"What do you MEAN you don't know who that was?"

Ranma Saotome shrugged. "This crap happens all the time around here. They'll probably be back soon, though."

"Why, pray tell, do you say that?"

"Cause they missed Akane."

WHAM!

"Ms. Tendo, while this time I sympathize, if you mallet one more person in my presence I WILL run you in. Got me?"

Akane Tendo gulped. "Yes… Yes sir."

They crying man, Soun Tendo, grabbed up Ranma, and shook the boy. "Ranma! You have to save Kasumi!"

"How the heck do you want me to do that? That things half way to china by now!"

"Okinawa, from the direction it flew." Hibuki sighed. He opened his cell and dialed. "Haruka? It's Hibiki. Can I borrow you and that Helicopter of yours? Some loon kidnapped Luna."  
He listened. "No, not the Gaki. I actually don't think this is going to turn out to be that big a deal, for some reason, but I want to pursue the idiots before they manage to piss her off." He paused. "Great! I have to call the SDF Tracking station to confirm their heading, so I'll meet you at the airport. Bye."

He turned to Ranma. "I assume you're coming?"

11111`1

Luna awoke, again to voices.

"Neither held the sacred swan idol?"

"No, my King, but it was with them. One must be the Swan Princess!"

"Prepare the test, then. We'll see which one I shall marry, tomorrow!"

A closing, and locking, door punctuated the conversation, and Luna fell back into oblivion.

222222

"I'm glad you could make arrangements so quickly, Mr. Yui." Keitaro commented as the two men settled more comfortably into their seats. The Air Egypt jet had just leveled off, letting htem finally get comfy.

"Hmmm? Oh, I have a great travel agent." The white haired 'man' chuckled. "I call them Mercury Travel."

"Like the messenger god?"

"Or the computer." Artemis grinned at the other mans confused look. "So, how did you translate this tablet? It's not exactly like any other language man kind developed."

He gestured at the print outs, pictures of the tablet Keitaro had translated. The glasses wearing youth shrugged. "Luck. I stumbled across another object… hold on…" Keitaro dug about in his pack for another print out. The picture was of a clay tablet, with "scratches" that resembled the language of the moon story tablet. "Here it is. I think some merchant was teaching a son to translate the two languages. It gave me a good starting lexicon, though it wasn't quite a rosetta stone."

"You did well."

"Mr. Yui?"

"Call me Artemis."

"Okay… Artemis… if you don't mind me saying so, you seem to know something about this language."

"I've seen it before…" Artemis admitted. "It's called 'Mau'."

"When did you see it? Where?"

"A… Long time ago." Artemis replied. "In a place that… well it was destroyed in a war. It doesn't exist any more."

That was only the truth. The central city of the Mau, or Moon Cats, fell an hour before the palace it's self.

It was the language of his own people.

333333

Luna grunted, pushing one more time, then gave up. The heavy door was very sturdy, and as a human she couldn't make it budge. Neko-jin Luna might, but Kasumi was awake and watching.

"I'm sure Ranma will be here shortly." The girl calmly, almost cheerfully, assured her. "He always arrives in the nick of time."

"Sounds familiar." Luna sighed. She'd slept through the night, thanks to the repeated blows to the head. "I must say, you're taking this very well."

"Oh my… Shouldn't I? The fruit is wonderful, and Kirin was so nice the first time I was kidnapped."

Luna blinked, then remembered that issue of the Manga. "Oh… well…"

Suddenly the door was unbarred, and opened. Two armored guards stepped in. "It is time for the tests. You will come!"

Luna debated going for her gun, but saw twenty more guards outside. Her compact pistol, the only one she could find comfortable for her petite hands, wouldn't do much other then garuntee they'd be killed. She cursed her lack of spare ammo. Artemis had warned her…

"To hell with him." She muttered. "Take me to your leader."

"Oh, that is something we've never gotten around to saying. That's strange, don't you think." Kasumi commented.

Luna chose to ignore her, and followed the guards. They came to a throne room, where they were told to sit on a pair of swings in the middle of the room. The king stepped down from his dias. "I am King Minokous, and one of you is destined to be my bride! Let the test be done!"

The floor under both retracted, revealing a shallow wading pool. Suddenly the swings split, dumping the girls into the water.

Kasumi changed, while Luna fell gracelessly through the water, landing on the bottom, on her tail.

"And lo, the Princess's servants shall be the very swans of the sky! The black haired one is the princess!"

"We shall be wed immediately!" The king announced, looking straight at Luna.

Common sense dictates that you never drop a cat into water. While we could perhaps forgive them, since they hadn't realized Luna was a cat, Luna was not in so forgiving a mood.

"The hell we will." She stated, standing. She pulled her gun, and fired two rounds into two vases on either side of the kings throne. Then she pointed the smoking weapon at his royal head. "Let us go, or I'm going to give you a third nostril. Understand?"

The man whimpered.

4444444

Hibuki stared at the bodies, armed and armored, littering the ground. Haruka, standing next to him, whistled.

"I couldn't have done better as Sailor Uranus." She commented softly.

She was referring to the whirlwind of destruction that was Ranma Saotome, martial artist, as he destroyed over one hundred pike men. He was unarmed, and single handedly he'd beaten them all in less then four minutes. Even more impressively, none of them looks seriously injured, just knocked out!

"You coming?" the pig tailed boy himself asked. Hibuki walked up even as the impressive martial arts master lifted his fist to the door. Rather it was to knock, or just knock it down, Hibuki would never know.

At that moment the doors swung open, and Luna walked through them while carrying the swan form of Kasumi Tendo.

"Luna! How'd you get away?" Hibuki asked.

"Like you said, Hibuki, I'm very diplomatic. Can we go home now?"

AN: Okay, it's been way to long, but here's the next chapter of the Moon Cats saga. I'm sorry it took so long, and I will try to do more very soon. Hopefully.


	6. Chapter 6

Moon Cats: Walkabout

Disclaimer: I disclaim. I disclaim!

Chapter 5

The flight had been, thankfully, uneventful and Artemis had begged off going to dinner with the others so he could settle into his room.

More to the point, so he could assume his natural, feline form. While Luna and he had both adapted to their innate, and strangely forgotten, shape shifting abilities it was still a bit difficult to maintain the forms for longer than 12 hours or so, without it getting itchy. At least for him since Luna denied having any such difficulties.

Artemis wasn't sure if that was true, or she just liked to appear unflappable.

"Whatever… she's probably still pissed off at me." He muttered, as he shifted into his white cat self, stretching as he hopped onto the bed.

"Actually, she's already mostly forgiven you. But her day was quite hectic."

Artemis, now clinging to the ceiling like the cat he was (Or a certain pigtailed martial artist) glared down at Sailor Pluto, who was somehow sitting in the easy chair in the corner of the room. She had the odd 'smirk that totally isn't a smirk' she liked to use on Usagi. "Really. Did you have to do that?"

"Usagi started sitting against the wall whenever she expects me to turn up, lately. It's gotten a bit dull, and Rei yells to much."

"Right…" Artemis dropped from the ceiling, landing on his feet, and sitting down. "And you decided to come terrify me, for your jollies?"

"No. Were I to do that, I'd wait for you to be human, naked, and in the shower."

"What!"

Pluto did smirk at that point. "You are far too easy, Artemis. Are you sure the stress of being away isn't more than the stress of staying would have been? It's not too late to fly back."

"I'm not stressed about being away. I'm just tense because of what this archeologist found." Artemis snapped. "There's the possibility of some Mau having made it to Earth after the Fall."

Pluto didn't comment, instead she stood and picked up his coat, arching an eyebrow. "What would Luna say, you just leaving this on the floor." She observed, hanging the coat on a hook.

Artemis shrugged. "She isn't here, is she. And what do you care? You aren't usually one to worry about our relationships. Well, except for Usagi and Mamoru."

"I am your friend, Artemis. And everyone does miss you."

"You can't imagine how much I appreciate you coming to… tell me… that." Artemis frowned, considering the Senshi of Pluto.

Setsuna didn't want that. "Why did you pay for the hotel? Shouldn't the doctor leading this fools errand have paid for things?"

"He did… partially. However, having traveled quite a bit in the past, I'm never letting frugality put me in a flea motel again. Not with this fur." Artemis replied, turning and padding over to a pillow, laying down. "So. Are you going to tell me why you're really here? Or should I guess."

"What are you talking about?" Setsuna asked mildly, folding the rest of his discarded clothing.

"One: You don't pick up after anyone but yourself. Two: You never make social calls. Three: You know myself and Luna's future… and Diana. I suspect we both know we'll work things out. It's not like we have… a lot of… choice…"

Pluto sighed. "I hate trying to play cat and mouse with Mau. You have an advantage."

"Wait, you mean I was right?"

Pluto did not face fault. Her uniform had special, mystical sub routines to stop it. "What?"

"Well. I figured you could have just been bored, you get like that sometimes if memory serves. But I figured I'd play the longshot. You're actually trying to get me to go home, to abandon this. Why? It's not like I can threaten the future."

"Can't you?" Pluto asked. "Would you like to know a secret? About time? Something I've not told anyone except Queen Serenity all those centuries ago?"

Artemis frowned. "Most likely, I don't, but tell me anyway."

"Time isn't a straight line, which you know, and time isn't as neat an image as comparing it to a river makes it sound." Pluto explained, sitting down so she could meet Artemis's eyes more easily. "Rivers, and time, will flow around objects, split and reform, and change fundamentally as it moves forward, all while maintaining certain consistencies. There are fixed points, the Fall for example, and there are critical hinge points, such as the Black Moon family tried to manipulate. Then there's… everything else."

"Everything else? Meaning things that don't change the course of the world?"

"Some of those events even fall into the 'everything else', Artemis." Pluto corrected. "One of them is what you're investigating right now."

"Why would some of the Mau reaching earth matter to the grand scheme of things?"

Pluto remained silent.

"Oh. Telling me would change things, in and of it's self." Artemis guessed.

She remained silent.

"You want me to just run back to Japan, and ignore this, don't you?"

"Just for the time being." Pluto replied. "Allow the human scientist to continue his work. He'll win awards for it, actually. Just don't go with him. That's all I ask."

Artemis stood, stepping closer to Pluto. "You're asking."

"Yes."

"Not telling."

"No. If I interfere in events that aren't essential to the future of Crystal Tokyo without need, I'll be violating my oaths as Sailor Pluto." She replied. "I'll admit, I considered doing so anyhow. It's not as though Usagi would have known any better, or cared, but I took those oaths seriously."

Artemis nodded. "I'll take it under advisement."

"I can even teleport you back with me. No more airline food."

"Tempting." Artemis admitted. "But you won't tell me why, will you."

"No."

"And that's why my answer is also no." Artemis replied.

"Why?"

"You, too frequently, hold your cards closer to your chest than you should, Pluto." Artemis replied, somewhat coldly. "You weren't like this in the past. I remember more now, as does Luna. You weren't this Chess Master you play at being now. You didn't panic when Hotaru was awakened centuries ago as Saturn, like you were in the here and now. And you haven't even hinted as to why."

"The why's changed."

"But you never bothered to tell them to us. How many other times have you redirected one of us? Or someone we may have interacted with, even though it wasn't really a major history point. How many times did you justify it."

"I've never acted as Sailor Pluto outside of our own circle, or our enemies."

"So just us, then." Artemis translated.

Pluto remained silent.

"This time, and once I speak to the girls I suspect in the future, you're going to find yourself having to explain yourself more. The girls are getting older, Setsuna. They'll stop trusting you if you don't."

Pluto stood. "I can't change your mind?" She asked, ignoring his previous statement.

"Not now." Artemis replied.

Sailor Pluto vanished.

"Okay, Arty… What have you gotten yourself into now?" He muttered.

Back at the time gates, Setsuna stood, watching the white cat. Then, she smiled. "Chess Master, huh. I think I like that." She muttered, as the time stream where Artemis spent the night dreaming of Luna, and flew home, vanished. "I like that very much."

She tried to ignore the chill his observation about the other Senshi had left, still running along the nerves of her spine.

AN: Hello folks! Okay, oddly, I've gotten some messages regarding the preference for less of the crossover elements. I can't garuntee they won't occur, but since I'm not one to ignore the wishes of my readers, I'll tone it down a bit. Note: The Love Hina characters are more or less here to stay, and others are likely to pass through, but I'll make sure to focus more on the Sailor Moon/Moon Cats cast and allow them to be supporting characters.

For those who are curious, you can now follow me on Twitter: Shadoe_Fox


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